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Monday, March 28, 2011

Crysis 2

Games : http://www.ea.com/crysis-2

(en.wikipedia.org) Crysis 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, that was released on March 22, 2011 (US). It is the sequel to the 2007 video game Crysis and its parallel expansion game, Crysis Warhead.[3] The story was written by author Richard Morgan.[4] Another science fiction author, Peter Watts,[5] was also consulted and wrote a novel adaptation of the game. It is the first game to showcase the CryEngine 3 game engine.

Overview

Crysis 2 is set in New York City[6] in 2023 (three years after the events of the first game), which has since been evacuated due to alien infestation. Similar to its predecessor, Crysis 2 provides freedom to customize weaponry and abilities. Crytek wanted to avoid making another game set in a jungle environment, as were Far Cry and Crysis; New York City has been dubbed an "urban jungle". The urban atmosphere offers more options in how to progress and plan attacks. Players are able to navigate between floors and buildings, as well as a destroyed cityscape.

Players control a Force Recon Marine codenamed "Alcatraz"; the successor to Jake "Nomad" Dunn – the protagonist from the first game. As Alcatraz, players gain ownership of the Nanosuit 2.0 from Army Delta Force officer, Laurence "Prophet" Barnes, who returns from the original Crysis, where he was Nomad's commanding officer in Raptor Team. CryNet Systems has been hunting Prophet to retrieve the suit, inadvertently pursuing Alcatraz, believing he is Prophet. The Nanosuit 2.0 gives players more freedom in their options in tackling situations on the battlefield. The aliens seen in the original game have undergone a major redesigning, abandoning the ancient, tentacled exosuits seen in the first game for high-tech humanoid armored war machines that stalk Alcatraz through the ravaged New York City. Crytek has stated their intention to surpass the original game graphically and gameplay-wise, and have oxymoronically claimed that combat in the game will be "catastrophically beautiful".[7] Crytek has also claimed that Crysis 2 will have lower system requirements than the original game, but will still exceed the original graphically[8] and will also support true stereoscopic 3D.[9] However, the official system requirements were revealed to be lower in relative rather than absolute terms.[clarification needed][citation needed] More recently, with the release of the PC demo, it is clearly seen that the "minimum" requirements are what's required to run the game on "Gamer" settings at an HD resolution.[10]

Crytek has teased the redesigned Nanosuit, called the "Nanosuit 2.0", created by the fictional CryNet Systems company, the creators of the first Nanosuit.[11] The new Nanosuit supports new and upgraded features. However, suit functionality has been streamlined; there is a brief period of time where players are able to use two modes simultaneously before the suit fully locks the mode. This is decidedly different than the first game, where the suit could only use a single function at a time. The first suit's Strength and Speed Modes have been combined into the new Power Mode, the suit binoculars function has been upgraded with an advanced Tactical mode, the Cloaking Device has been modified to allow increased sensory input and silent melee stealth kills and has been renamed to Stealth Mode, while the Armor Mode has been left more or less as is, with the exception of slightly restricted agility. There are two trailers, with one trailer showing the suit in a wire-frame state,[12] the other showing the suit in a complete state.[13] In-fiction, the suit is to feature many improvements over its predecessor, giving soldiers freedom to upgrade their suits based on their own style of combat. In practice, this is not the case, although a Call of Duty-like Perk system allows minor modifications in multiplayer mode.[14]

PC Gamer magazine published a preview of Crysis 2, showing a park and a destroyed city street with an alien device in the centre. In the article's interview Crytek hints at how the game will have "increased verticality" and will be set in a "new type of jungle".

Crytek confirmed to CVG that Crysis 2 will not use EA's Online Pass system. "All we can say/confirm is that we aren't using Online Pass for Crysis 2," the studio said in a brief statement.[15]

Plot

Set in 2023, three years after the events of the first Crysis, the game begins with news footage of a large outbreak of the "Manhattan" virus, a gruesome disease that causes complete cellular breakdown, and panic about an alien invasion by the Cephaloids, the tentacled, squid-like alien race behind the incident of Crysis. Due to the breakdown in social order within New York City, Manhattan is placed under Martial Law, and under contract from the US Department of Defense, soldiers from C.E.L.L., a private military company run by the Crynet corporation, police the chaos.

A United States Marine Corps Force Recon unit is deployed into the New York City by submarine to extract former Crynet employee Doctor Nathan Gould, who may have vital information on combating the alien race. However, insertion goes awry, with the Cephaloids destroying the sub, and Force Recon Marine "Alcatraz" being left as the sole survivor. Army Delta Force officer Prophet saves Alcatraz, and is distressed with the situation, expecting the squad to support him. Left with no other choice since he himself has been infected by the Manhattan virus, Prophet gives Alcatraz his suit, the futuristic and high-tech Nanosuit 2.0. He then kills himself so that the Nanosuit will stop associating itself with him and be able to assimilate with Alcatraz. Assuming that Alcatraz is Prophet, Gould gets in contact with him and orders a number of alien tissue samples to be recovered. Prior to the incident, Prophet had been targeted by CELL Commander Dominic Lockhart as an active biohazard due to having been infected with the Manhattan virus, and also in part due to ethical disagreements regarding the side-effects of wearing the Nanosuits (with Prophet describing the wearers as "Dead Men Walking"). Because of this, Alcatraz also faces combat with CELL operatives, who believe that he is Prophet because of his Nanosuit. Alcatraz meets up with Gould only to be met with initial hostility when he finds out that he is not Prophet. However, when the suit plays Prophet's last recorded message, Gould relents and informs Alcatraz Nanosuit's deep layers may contain a solution to stop the Manhattan virus and combat the Cephaloids. Gould and Alcatraz commit to further scans at a Crynet base on Wall Street, and find out that Alcatraz was mortally wounded when Prophet rescued him, and that the Nanosuit was the only thing keeping Alcatraz alive. The scans are cut short when CELL forces led by Commander Lockhart and Tara Strickland, daughter of U.S. Marine Corps Major Strickland from the first game, ambush Alcatraz and Gould.

During the middle of a prisoner transfer outside the building, the Cephaloids attack the CELL personnel as a massive alien spire rises from underneath the Crynet building, releasing a spore-based bio-weapon that kills most of the CELL troops in the immediate area. Alcatraz is left stranded and isolated for a period of time while dealing with a Nanosuit malfunction brought upon by the spore bio-weapon. The suit gets rebooted remotely by Crynet director Jacob Hargreave, a centenarian who apparently had foreknowledge of the Ceph and spent most of the previous century designing the Nanosuit from stolen Ceph technology as a defense against them. Under Hargreave's orders, Alcatraz enters another one of the alien spires to test whether the Nanosuit's systems can interface with the aliens' technology. The experiment fails, due to the Nanosuit not being powerful enough to ensure the insertion. In the meantime, the US Department of Defense rescinds the authority of CELL over Manhattan and deploys US Marines in their place under the command of Marine Colonel Barclay. They then attempt to drown the aliens out of lower Manhattan by ordering an air strike on the city's flood barrier. Washed away by the resulting wave of water, Alcatraz is later found by Marines, who enlist his aid in evacuating civilians to Grand Central Terminal, the city's primary evacuation point.

Hargreave contacts Alcatraz and reveals that the Nanosuit is busy analyzing the alien tissue samples that Alcatraz had previously recovered and is currently rewriting its own code to interface with alien technology. He tells Alcatraz and his marine allies to take a detour to the Hargreave-Rasch building, an office building of Crynet's parent company, Hargreave-Rasch. There, Alcatraz is told to find a stabilizing agent in the bio-lab to facilitate the Nanosuit's analyzing process, but CELL operatives guarding the building under the command of Lockhart still believe that Alcatraz is Prophet, and attempt to kill him. The Hargreave-Rasch complex is attacked by a Ceph "pinger" robot and is completely flooded, washing Alcatraz out of the building and leaving him unable to enter the bio-lab. Seeing that the cause is lost, Hargreave tells Alcatraz to regroup with the marines at Grand Central to help evacuate civilians. At the terminal, Alcatraz is reunited with Gould, who had apparently "escaped" Strickland, leading to the skepticism of Colonel Barclay. Knowing that Strickland is an ex-Navy SEAL, Barclay concludes that Strickland released Gould from captivity. Grand Central Terminal is overrun by Ceph forces, but Alcatraz manages to hold them off long enough for the evacuation trains to depart, and escapes the building's destruction.

Due to the hasty and incomplete evacuation from Grand Central, Alcatraz is then tasked with defending a secondary evacuation point at Times Square, when another alien spire rises from the ground. By this time, the Nanosuit had finished processing the alien spores, and Alcatraz manages to enter the spire, allowing his Nanosuit to interface with it and re-purpose the spores to be lethal to the Ceph. This causes a cataclysmic self-destruction of the Cephaloids in the area, and apparently removes all traces of the biological warfare agent. Alcatraz makes his way to Roosevelt Island to infiltrate a Crynet complex named "The Prism", where Hargreave resides, and manages to kill Lockhart, but is captured by Hargreave, who wants the Nanosuit for himself and attempts to remove the Nanosuit from Alcatraz's body. However, the Nanosuit rejects its removal since it had already completely assimilated with its wearer, revealing memories of Prophet's fallout with Hargreave. Alcatraz is saved by Strickland, who reveals herself to be an undercover CIA operative. Alcatraz attempts to capture Hargreave, but Hargreave reveals that he has been in a vegetative state for over a century since an encounter with the Ceph at Tunguska, and that Hargreave's consciousness is only able to communicate through the use of an entirely computerized system. He gives Alcatraz a last Nanosuit upgrade, the "Tunguska Iteration", before the Cephaloids invade the island. Hargreave triggers a countdown timer for the self-destruct system of the complex, and convinces CELL forces to aid Alcatraz's exfiltration. Alcatraz barely escapes the massive explosion, which destroys much of the island and the Queensboro Bridge.

Alcatraz is notified by Colonel Barclay that the US Department of Defense has decided to launch a Tactical Nuclear Strike on Manhattan Island, with little regard to collateral damage. Barclay warns Alcatraz that unless he can come up with a better plan, the plan would likely be carried out despite the risk of dangerous nuclear fallout. A massive alien spire appears in Central Park, and lifts the park into the air. With the peripheral aid of Gould, Strickland, and Barclay, Alcatraz assaults the floating section of Central Park and succeeds in making his way to the central alien spire. He enters the spire, and his Nanosuit, with the Tunguska Iteration upgrade, is able to repurpose the spire's bio-weapon to turn against the Ceph, killing all Cephaloids in New York in the process. Alcatraz, while unconscious, communicates with Prophet (whose memories, experiences, and personality had been stored in the suit), who states that, while the mission in New York is a success, they have more work to do since the Cephaloids had ancient constructs built all over the world, and were not only limited to New York and the Lingshan Islands. The Nanosuit, before rebooting again, states assimilation complete, and Prophet's memories are now "assimilated" into Alcatraz. Upon waking up in Central Park, Alcatraz receives a broadcast from Karl Ernst Rasch, the other founder of Hargreave-Rasch, asking for his name. Climbing out of the crater and speaking for the first time in the game, Alcatraz responds in Prophet's voice, "They call me Prophet".

Development

Crysis 2 was announced at E3 2009 on June 1, 2009, and has been in development since 2007. Crysis 2 is the sequel to 2007's Crysis which was lauded for its impressive visuals. German based studio Crytek Frankfurt which developed the first game is the lead developer of the sequel along with help from Crytek UK, formerly Free Radical. It is the first game using the new engine CryEngine 3. Crytek brought their technical expertise for the first time to consoles and seeks to uphold their reputation of creating some of the most visually impressive games. The PC version is supposedly ported from the Xbox 360 version and currently supports only DirectX 9. DirectX 11 will be supported post release with a patch.[citation needed] Crytek looks to surpass the original Crysis, which is still a benchmark of PC graphical performance in 2011.[16]

Crytek has claimed that Crysis 2 contains the best graphics in the history of video games. Nathan Camarillo said that Crysis 2 has 'best graphics you've ever seen'. The studio also reckons Crysis 2 offers a "complete gaming experience like no other".[17] Crytek boss Cevat Yerli has claimed that the enemy AI in Crysis 2 is the most sophisticated in video game history.[18]

Crytek’s Nathan Camarillo has declared that developers need to start churning out titles capable of scoring in the 90s if they ever want to be recognised in today’s competitive market conditions. Camarillo commented, "We're going to put out the best game that we can make and that's probably over a 90 rated so it's a fair statement to make." Camarillo went on to say that the need for review scores of 90% or more did not just apply to Crysis 2 and its FPS competition though: "I think you have to be 90 plus to make an impact in any genre now. The quality bar is so high and publishers and developers have put so much effort against high quality games. If you want to be recognised at all, regardless of genre, like anything you need to create the highest quality product possible and anything else is not going to get noticed."[19] He has also said that today's FPS games need 'awesome multiplayer'. "I don't think it has to have multiplayer to have longevity and I think there's plenty of titles that don't have multiplayer that do quite well, but that's more of a genre specific decision. For an FPS game yeah you really have to have it unless you're a very unique kind of FPS depending on what you're [sic] delivery platform is and what market you're going into." he said. Camarillo still believes that Crysis 2's multiplayer is completely unique, "It's different from other FPS games in that you are this ultimate super soldier that has the ability to cloak at any point in time, so it's different than modern military shooters, it's different to Halo. You have the manoeuvrability, you're in an urban environment, you can jump, you can slide, you can climb. There's so much you can do in that first-person experience that the other multiplayer games don't offer."[20]

In May 2010, Epic's Mike Capps said he was surprised people could take Crytek seriously as a cross-platform engine company given it had yet to release a console game. In January 2011, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, responded with saying that no other engine could have delivered Crysis 2 and that CryEngine 3 could handle "pretty much any other game", but claimed that its rivals Epic Games’s Unreal Engine could not handle Crysis 2.[21]

Crytek has told that it fully intends to make Crysis 3, and that it already has a plan for how the series' story will progress. However, the studio admits that the chances of a third game in the FPS series making it to market depends on the success of Crysis 2.[22]

Retail versions

On August 17, 2010 EA announced that there would be two special editions of the game.[23]

The Limited Edition of Crysis 2 is available at the same price as the regular game, but in limited quantities. It comes with bonus experience points to "immediately boost the player up to Rank 5, giving access to all the preset class loadouts",[24] a digital camo weapon skin for the SCAR, the "Hologram Decoy" attachment for the SCAR, and unique in-game platinum dog tags. The Indian Version, on pre-order, also includes the Threat Detector Suit Module (Early Access), and, on buying from the EA store, a gold dog tag and desert camo for SCAR.[25]

The Nano Edition of Crysis 2, which is was only available through pre-order, includes the Limited Edition copy of the game in a Steelbook case, an 11" statue of Alcatraz posed on top of a New York City taxi, an art book, and a Nanosuit backpack "modeled after the in-game super suit." The Nanosuit backpack is large enough to accommodate a 17" laptop.[26] As of September 26, 2010, the Nano Edition was made available for pre-order on the EA website for a $149.95 price tag but was sold out before March 2011. After the game's launch, those who preordered the Nano Edition had their shipment delayed. EA gave the affected customers a 75% off coupon as compensation.

Multiplayer Demo

EA and Crytek launched a multiplayer demo of Crysis 2 on January 25, 2011. Crytek announced that the demo would only be available until February 4, 2011. The demo was exclusively on the Xbox 360, for Gold members to download, although on January 27, Crytek confirmed that there would be a multiplayer demo for the PC.[27] The demo featured the map Skyline, and two multiplayer game modes to play: Team Instant Action and Crash Site. Team Instant Action pits two teams against one another in a team deathmatch style, while Crash Site has players defending alien drop pods like control points.[28] Within hours of its release, thousands of complaints were reported after numbers of players were met with disconnects from games, crashing during loading and, oddly, a temperamental incompatibility with the Xbox Wireless WiFi adaptor. Crytek issued a statement telling players it was aware of "technical issues" with the Xbox multiplayer demo of Crysis 2, and managed to fix most of the issues in time for the PC demo.[29] Some bugs still exist as of the current beta build but are mostly if not entirely visual and do not noticeably affect game play.

Speaking at an EA event to PlayStation Universe, Crysis 2 producer Nathan Camarillo said PlayStation 3 gamers "can probably hope for one". "We want as many people to play Crysis 2 as possible," he added. "I can't say anything too specific ... we haven't announced [the demo] yet." Camarillo went on to say there'd be no difference in quality between the PS3 version of Crysis 2 and the Xbox 360 one, which had seen a pre-release demo.[30] Crytek’s released the first footage of Crysis 2 running on PlayStation 3 on February 24, 2011. The end of the video confirmed that a multiplayer beta is on the way for the system, but no date for the PS3 beta was announced.[31][32]

The second Crysis 2 multiplayer demo was released on March 1, 2011 on both the PC and the Xbox 360, with a PS3 demo launching "soon".[33] Among bug fixes from the first beta, the map 'Pier 17' was added to the Xbox version and extended to the PC version. PC gamers have commented on Xbox 360 remnants in the PC demo version, such as the prompt to "press start to begin"[34] or to "adjust your TV settings" when configuring the game brightness. It has also been reported that the PC version would not be released with support for DirectX 11, which will instead be implemented with a patch "later on".[35]

On March 15, a multiplayer demo was released on the Playstation Network, featuring both of the maps featured on the Xbox 360 version of the demo, being 'Pier 17' and 'Skyline'. On March 18, it was removed from the Store and the servers were shutdown due to server connection delays. Crytek stated they have "identified the root cause and have decided to close the PS3 demo ... to ensure all issues are resolved when the game launches next week", as their priority is to "ensure that the final product is flawless at launch."[36]

[edit] Leaked Beta

A beta version of the game dated from January was leaked on multiple torrent sites on February 11, 2011.[37][38] Online reports indicate that the leaked beta is a partially functioning developer's build compiled on January 13, 2011[39] that includes the entire single-player campaign and multiplayer component, but contains numerous bugs, is plagued by frequent crashes, is only partially completed with many placeholders and textures missing and has graphical options that are limited to DirectX 9 high, rather than the very high settings and DirectX 11 which are expected in the retail game.[40] Crytek released a statement saying they were "deeply disappointed" in piracy, which "continues to damage the PC packaged goods market."[41] Some reviewers remarked that Crytek's statement was strange, considering that no PC demo of the game had been released yet, and moreover, the source of the leaked beta was almost certainly an internal employee (rather than pirates).[42] On February 14, 2011, Crytek released a statement by Cevat Yerli that stated that despite their disappointment caused by the leak incident, Crytek is overwhelmed with the support they have received and they can assure the community that PC gaming is very important to them now and in the future.[43][44]

Crytek producer Nathan Camarillo calls the Crysis 2 game leak a "really ugly version" that the studio did not want people to see.

“

"Piracy is a real concern. The PS3 has been cracked now as well and people are downloading PS3 games and 360 games are being downloaded so that's a threat to just the industry in general. For us specifically, it was a very traumatic experience because we're really excited about the game and the quality that we were able to get into it and what we were able to accomplish... We're at the end and we're really excited about where we're at and your game gets leaked. And it's not even that the final version of the game gets leaked, you know? People are like 'It's 40/45 days before launch, Crysis is leaked' but that build was already from the middle of January. With 250 people working on a project, thousands of bugs get fixed in a heartbeat. So that version is like a really ugly version that we don't want anyone to see... All this stuff starts going up in pieces and even if someone downloads it and plays it themselves they might make a bad decision based on the fact that there are so many bugs in it. 'Oh, there are so many bugs in the game I wanted to play. It's so buggy, I'm not gonna buy it now.'"[45]

”

Soundtrack

Crysis 2 Original Soundtrack

Soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer

Genre

Video game soundtrack

Length

88:16

The Crysis 2 Original Soundtrack was composed by Borislav Slavov and Tilman Sillescu with the help of Hans Zimmer.

Crysis 2 Original Soundtrack (In-Game Extra) (88:16)

Crysis 2 (Original Videogame Soundtrack)

Soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer

Genre

Video game soundtrack

Length

36:20

Crysis 2 Original Videogame Soundtrack (iTunes Release) (36:20)

[edit] Reception

[hide] Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator

Score

GameRankings

88% (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)

Metacritic

88% (PC) 87% (Xbox 360, PS3)

Review scores

Publication

Score

1UP.com

A-

Eurogamer

8/10

Game Informer

9/10

GamePro

GameSpot

8.5/10

GameSpy

GameTrailers

9.1/10

IGN

9/10

Official Xbox Magazine

9/10

X-Play

Crysis 2 recieved generally positive reviews. The reviewers praised the graphics, but criticized the weaker nanosuit and some plot holes.

The first world review of the game was published by Official Xbox Magazine, which gave the game a 9/10. According to the magazine, it was the multiplayer that tipped the balance. It describes the online experience as "some of the most exciting, angry and satisfying action you'll ever have". The sheer spectacle of the single player campaign also left OXM impressed, and the magazine said the game's Nanosuit "is both massively empowering and intelligently balanced by the need to manage its energy levels".[46]

Gamereactor reviewed all versions simultaneously and awarded the game a 9/10, writing "its design is an exciting contrast to the jungles of the original, and New York is filled with destroyed landmarks, ruined neighbourhoods and the beauty of disaster that Cevat talked about. The amount of detail is insane, and the effects are incredible." On the other hand, the website criticized the story, noting "the dialogue often feels over the top and the characters feel flat and uninteresting. Crytek have clearly been inspired by Half-Life 2, but they never even come close to Valve's league despite their high ambitions." It still concluded that "it would simply be a shame not to call this the best action game so far this year."[47]

PC Gamer gave Crysis 2 an 89, commenting that Crysis 2 is "Visually near-perfect, but the ample action is bottlenecked by narrower level design and a weaker Nanosuit." PC Gamer awarded the first Crysis game with a 98.

A review for the Playstation 3 version only was published by Official Playstation Magazine, which gave the game a 8/10. OPM calls Crysis 2 "excellent - technically strong, visually outstanding and full of welcome fresh ideas." OPM's main gripes are with the shooter's "bungled" opening section, and the magazine says it takes maybe five hours of "persisting" through "a thorny, poorly signposted and indifferent shooter" until Crysis 2 really kicks off. "Developer Crytek has a deserved reputation for pushing gaming hardware to the brink and its debut work on PS3 is first-rate," it says. "It doesn't just look good, it looks different. The Manhattan mix of crooked concrete spires and green urban spaces is refreshing after the relentless dark khaki backgrounds of Call of Duty and Medal of Honor."[48]

Despite a positive reception the PC version has been plagued by technical problems resulting in a day one patch being released. There are also reports of continued problems including issues with multi-GPU support, screen flicker and licence code and activation errors. EA is aware of these issues and has provided temporary advice. [49]

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